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by Council of Australian Governments

Abstract

The Council of Australian Governments (COAG) held its 22nd meeting in Sydney on 3 July 2008. The key discussion points and outcomes from the meeting relating to Indigenous issues are outlined below.

COAG leaders agreed to sustained engagement and effort by all governments over the next decade and beyond to achieve the Closing the Gap targets for Indigenous people.

The preliminary Statement of Objectives, Outcomes, Outputs and Performance Measures for the new funding agreements prepared by the Indigenous Reform Working Groups was noted by COAG.

COAG agreed in principle to a National Partnership with joint funding of around $547.2 million over six years to address the needs of Indigenous children in their early years of development.

Dates were set for future meetings to decide on plans for implementing the reforms and on integrating the reforms of Indigenous childhood development into COAG's broader reform agenda.

COAG agreed that the Working Group on Indigenous Reform should continue to develop reform proposals in October 2008, and to report to COAG in December 2008 on how COAG's broader reform agenda will deliver an integrated strategy on closing the gap for all Indigenous people.

Following the discussion on housing, COAG agreed that the initial priorities for the Housing Working Group were to include the development of service delivery improvements to address the level of overcrowded housing experienced by Indigenous people.